BNL AND SUFFOLK COUNTY LAUNCH

HIGH-TECH BROWN TIDE MONITORING BUOY

Approach could be used to study nuisance algae elsewhere

HAMPTON BAYS, NY - It may only look like a humble buoy floating in the
waters of the Peconic Bay, but a sophisticated instrument launched today
will give scientists on land a "live" look at the brown tide algae
that has plagued local bays for over a decade.

And, the technology being used to feed a constant stream of brown tide
data to Long Island scientists could also help researchers elsewhere tackle
nuisance algae problems of their own.

The buoy was built by the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National
Laboratory, with $100,000 in funding from Suffolk County's Peconic Estuary
Program.

It was given a ceremonial send-off from the docks at Meschutt County
Park this morning by Suffolk Executive Robert Gaffney and BNL Director John
Marburger.

"As brown tide season approaches, and the reasons why this phenomenon
occurs still remain cloudy, we hope this buoy will add a few more pieces
to the puzzle," said Marburger. "We are glad to help Suffolk County
lead the way in brown tide research."

"What is 'brown tide' and what causes it?" asked Gaffney.
"There are many different theories, but the unfortunate fact is, we
do not have a definitive answer. But now, with some of the finest scientists
anywhere working on this problem, perhaps we'll get some answers and see
a permanent end to brown tide."

The buoy was carried by boat to a spot west of Robins Island and anchored
in 20 feet of water, where it will gather information on water conditions
and algae concentrations throughout the summer. Two other identical buoys,
launched separately, will monitor West Neck Bay near Shelter Island and
another portion of the Peconic estuary.

The meter-long buoys use detectors called fluorometers to measure the
amount of chlorophyll present in the water; chlorophyll is an indicator
of the concentration and health of the brown tide algae. Other detectors
will record the temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen in the water.

All three instruments are equipped with radio transmitters that can
beam data to antennas at Jamesport, Southampton, Orient Point or Smith Point
State Park, which will relay the information to a receiver at BNL. The
data will then be automatically posted on the World Wide Web at the address
http://rolly.ccd.bnl.gov/Btide/bt_top.shtml, making it available to researchers
everywhere.

This "environmental monitoring network" also includes stations
that collect information on weather conditions from around Suffolk County.
The network was constructed by BNL with cooperation from the county, which
provided space on an antenna tower at the Southampton police station.

Currently, researchers from the Suffolk County Department of Health
Services, BNL, the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institute are studying brown tide.

BNL's projects include research on the brown tide organism, Aureococcus
anophagefferens, by oceanographer Julie LaRoche of the Laboratory's Environmental
Biology Division. Her work is funded by BNL's Laboratory Directed Research
& Development program.

LaRoche and BNL colleagues Douglas Wallace, Kevin Wyman and Paul Falkowski,
and SCDHS's Robert Nuzzi and Robert Waters, last year published a theory
for brown tide occurrence that relied heavily on data collected by SCDHS
and past BNL monitoring efforts.

Other algal studies using moored buoys similar to those built by BNL
are being conducted in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Tampa Bay in Florida.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory creates
and operates major facilities available to university, industrial and
government personnel for basic and applied research in the physical,
biomedical and environmental sciences, and in selected energy technologies.
The Laboratory is operated by Brookhaven Science Associates, a not-for-profit
research management company, under contract with the U.S. Department
of Energy.